When Yahoo Fantasy Football Goes Down, Outrage Ensues

Death threats, vulgar rants and calls for violence against Yahoo execs arose on Twitter on Sunday after a temporary server disruption at the multinational Internet corporation prevented fantasy football enthusiasts from posting their rosters or making lineup changes online before the start of the day's games.

Yahoo has yet to issue a statement explaining what caused the issue, leaving online sports writers such as Jeff Everette of Rantsports.com to suggest the server failure was “likely caused by test runs and changes being made by Yahoo.”

Whatever the issue was that caused the disruption, fantasy footballers could not control their rage online.

Additional tweets reposted on Buzzfeed.com included death threats to the family members of Yahoo employees and its creator.

So what is fantasy football?

Fantasy football is a game that allows fans to create a team by selecting players from across the NFL. Each week fantasy footballers compete against others in their league, earning points according to how well the actual player performs on the gridiron that week.

According to San Francisco Chronicle’s Glenn Dickey, fantasy football was created in 1962 by Oakland Raiders limited partner William Winkenbach, Oakland Tribune beat writer Scotty Stirling and Raiders public relations man Bill Tunnell. Initially, Tribune staff and those connected with the Raiders were the only ones playing the game. In time, the game grew in popularity.

As a result of the Internet, millions now belong to fantasy football leagues across the country.

According to a report on The Huffington Post, 24.3 million people play fantasy football, which has an approximate value of $1 billion says the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Death threats, vulgar rants and calls for violence against Yahoo execs arose on Twitter on Sunday after a system crash prevented fantasy football enthusiasts from posting their rosters or making lineup changes online.